The LIVINGroom, an ensemble of solo writer/performers including several alumni and students from the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department, presents a “celebration of self” with its midsummer event, The LIVINGroom: Block Party, on Sunday, July 10, at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, Chicago. The evening starts at 7 PM with a block party, at which audience members can pitch bags in a game of cornhole, listen to live music, and get their caricatures drawn by Chicago artists.

The show starts at 8 PM, with a lineup of solo performers. Among them are Columbia College alumni Jennifer Kiehl (BA ’15), Sarah McCarten (BA ’15), and Anna Wolfe (BA ’15), all graduates of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting, and David Stobbe (BA ’16), a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre. Also performing are current Columbia Theatre students Tyler Anthony Smith, an Acting BA major, and Kyle Hamlin, a senior in the Theatre Department’s Writing for Performance/Playwriting BA program.

Block party musical and visual artists include Columbia College student Evan Szewc, a senior in the Theatre Department’s BFA Program in Acting with International Performance Study, and alumni Rory Beckett (BA ’16), a graduate of the Theatre Department’s Musical Theatre BA program, and Michael Kurowski (BFA ’16), a graduate of the BFA Program in Musical Theatre Performance.

The event is directed by Columbia College alum Abigail Phelps (BA ’15), a graduate of the Acting BA program.

Tickets are $10; student tickets are only $7 the night of the show at the box office with a student ID. For tickets, call 773-327-5252 or click here.

THE LIVINGroom is a solo performance series that brings together solo artists who devise and perform autobiographical stories based on a theme. “We are proud to continue The LIVINGroom’s partnership with Stage 773 to bring this unique art form into Chicago’s rich and diverse theatre and live lit landscape,” says producing artistic director Laura Reitsma (BFA ’09), a graduate of the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department’s acting program. “Solo performance pushes beyond the outlines of storytelling and theatre, aligning powerful personal stories, theatrical elements and audience engagement in a form that connects the performers and spectators in an unforgettable way.”